Many
people believe that we are the verge of a mass awakening of global consciousness
that will usher in a New Global Golden Age for mankind. The converging
prophecies of the Mayan Calendar, Bible prophecy, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce
and many others point to future time of Utopia for mankind. Although,
these sources have strong disagreements, as to the nature and timing of
these events, there are many signs that something big is about to happen.
Movies like “Thrive,” and the documentary movie, “Convergence,”
by David Wilcock; all talk about the coming spiritual evolution of the
human race.

The
world is in one of the greatest periods of crisis in the history of mankind
and people are looking for hope and answers. On many levels, science has
merged with religious teachings that explore consciousness, meditation
and new theories on the origins of man. As a consequence many people are
turning to new fields in science along with contemporary and ancient religious
traditions for answers.

The
first thing we must understand about contemporary religious movements
that use terms like “mass awakening,” “ascension,”
and “ cosmic consciousness,” is that many of these ideas have
their roots in Hinduism, Buddhism and the mystery religions of ancient
Babylon. In addition, there is a global resurgence in the interest in
the field of Bible prophecy, where growing numbers of people believe we
are living in the last days.

These
contemporary religious movements are rooted the teachings of ancient Buddhism,
which has been re-invented and translated into high-tech Western scientific
terms. What has been coined the New Age Movement, by the mass media is
really the combining and blending of various spiritual movements that
are centuries old.

For
example, the origin of Hinduism dates back as early as 2000 to 1000 B.C.
Hinduism has no historical founder, but its tradition teaches that its
spiritual laws and truths were revealed to spiritual men called rishis,
who lived along the banks of the Ganges and Indus rivers in northern India.
According to Hinduism, Brahman is the supreme, absolute, eternal, infinite,
neuter Spirit Being. Brahman is also perfect and unchangeable. Hinduism
teaches that only that which is permanent is real. Because all things
change except Brahman, only Brahman is real. Hundreds of lesser gods can
be worshiped by the Hindu because all gods are seen as different aspects
of the one Brahman.

According
to Hinduism, every living thing has a spirit or soul, called an atman,
which comes from Brahman. The final destination of the human atman is
union with Brahman, but this cannot be achieved in just one lifetime.
Therefore, each individual atman, or soul, must pass from body to body,
lifetime after lifetime, guided by the law of karma. This is called reincarnation,
or the transmigration of the soul. The law of karma determines what type
of life will be lived in each reincarnation. According to this law, your
current life is the product of your deeds in past lives. Your next reincarnation
will depend on your deeds during this life. There is a whole new breed
of spiritual teachers that have spread their messages on radio, television
and the various social media of the Internet.

David
Icke, a popular teacher on consciousness and conspiracies, visited the
pre-Inca Sillustani burial ground located near Puno, Peru. Icke describes
having a “kundalini” experience while standing on a mound
of earth. “Kundalini,” is a term from Indian yoga, where psychic
energy moves up the spine by activating energy centers of “chakras,”
which bring you into higher consciousness.

The
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is exploring all kinds
of technologies, biology and spirituality in its” Converging Technologies
for Improving Human Performance” project. Scientists are recognizing
that peak performance can be achieved utilizing centuries old spiritual
practices like visualization and meditation. Radio talk show host and
founder of the Foundation for Human Understanding (FHU), Roy Masters teaches
a non-religious meditation technique, that many combat veterans have used
to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD).

BUDDHISM

The
religion of Buddhism was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama (later
called “the Buddha” or “enlightened one”), who
lived between 560 and 480 B.C., as a protest against certain Hindu doctrines.
Siddhartha Gautama was raised in an affluent family and did not even know
that poverty existed until he left the pleasant confines of his father’s
palace. Siddhartha was so disturbed by the poverty and despair that existed
that he decided to go on a spiritual journey to find answers. Shaving
his head and donning a robe, Siddhartha Gautama traveled and consulted
with gurus and spiritual teachers.

Finally,
Siddhartha Gautama began to meditate, became “enlightened,”
and developed what became known as the Noble Eight-fold path that would
lead to nirvana or “perfect insight,” a quality of mind. These
eight techniques consisted of: (1) right belief, (2) right aspiration,
(3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right occupation, (6) right effort,
(7) right thought, (8) right meditation.

FROM
THE PAST TO THE PRESENT

Coupled
with these ancient belief systems (Hinduism and Buddhism) are the more
recent ideas of women like Madame Blavatsky who founded the Theosophical
Society and wrote Isis Unveiled in the late nineteenth century. Blavatsky’s
Theosophical Movement emphasized the Hindu and Buddhist teachings of reincarnation
and taught there are mahatmas (“great souls” or exalted beings)
who have come to earth to teach us the way to enlightenment.

The
ideas of the Theosophical Society blended with Mary Baker Eddy’s
Christian Science teachings and with dozens of other hybrid religious
movements in the early twentieth century. However, the most immediate
spiritual predecessor of the contemporary New Age Movement was the Hippie
movement of the 1960s and the earlier Beatnik movement of the 1950s. Both
of these cultural and social phenomena came about as reactions to the
materialism of the post-World War II years.

Poets,
writers, philosophers, and intellectuals (such as Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac,
Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Gregory Corso) called for a new
brand of American consciousness and popularized the use of marijuana and
Eastern meditation in our culture. By the 1960s, the ideas of men like
Timothy Leary were increasingly acceptable to larger segments of society,
and the appeal of pop music groups, such as the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson
Starship, the Doors, and the Beatles, ushered the psychedelic-mystical
revolution into the living rooms of millions of ordinary middle-class
teenagers. When John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison
began to follow the guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental
Meditation™, millions of Americans joined them.

Many
of the spiritual movements now popular in the New Age movement had their
twentieth-century revivals in the 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, many
social analysts believe that the New Age movement is nothing more than
an attempt to rediscover the interests of the 1960s and the idealism of
the Hippie movement.

But
the current New Age Movement has made some interesting departures from
its earlier predecessors that reflect the maturity of its followers. There
has been a de-emphasis in the use of drugs in favor of health foods, meditation,
channeling, crystals, and astral projection. Channeling and astral projection
have replaced the powerful psychedelic experience of the 1960s, although
there are signs of a possible resurgence of LSD through the work of modern
shamanists like Terrence McKenna and the popularity of the Albert Hoffman
Institute in Los Angeles, which seeks to protect the use of LSD experimentation.
(Albert Hoffman was the Swiss chemist who accidentally discovered the
chemical LSD.)

At the
same time the New Age Movement was taking off, the Jesus Movement also
exploded across the country, where hundreds of thousands of Hippies converted
to Christianity, under the teaching of men like Chuck Smith of Calvary
Chapel. The Jesus Movement emphasized a literal interpretation of the
Bible and an interest in Bible Prophecy. The members of the Jesus Movement
saw prophetic significance in the reformation of Israel as a nation in
1948. The term “Jesus is coming,” was popularized by this
movement, which believed in the any moment return of Jesus Christ, in
an event called “The Rapture.” Although, the timing and Biblical
validity of “the Rapture,’ is hotly disputed, it was a core
belief of the Jesus Movement.

NEW
AGE PRACTICES AND TERMS

To understand
more clearly what the New Age Movement and other contemporary religious
movements teach, we must understand some of the terms associated with
it and the practices employed by it.

Channeling
- The practice of channeling is not new. It is what the Old Testament
termed mediumship, consulting with spirits, and spiritism. Channeling
or mediumship is when an individual willfully yields to a spirit by going
into a trancelike state. Channeling has been around for centuries and
is mentioned in the Old Testament. King Saul consulted mediums and channelers
when he was looking for supernatural answers.

First
Samuel 28:7 says: “Then Saul said to his servants, ‘Seek for
me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.’
And his servants said to him, ‘Behold, there is a woman who is a
medium at Endor.’” We knew that Saul knew that it was wrong
to consult mediums, for he had to visit the medium in disguise, having
previously cut off all mediums and spiritists from the land. Saul disregarded
the Old Testament teaching sought counsel from the channelers of his day.

Astrology
- This New Age practice goes way back in to the Tower of Babel, which
was built as an astrological worship tower. The practice of astrology
was forbidden in the Book of Leviticus. The prophet Isaiah warns against
the practice of astrology in Isaiah 47:13-14: “You are wearied with
your many counsel; let now the astrologers, those who prophesy by the
stars, those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from
what will come upon you. Behold, they have become like stubble, fire burns
them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame….”
Yet, many American presidents and their wives have called famous astrologers
into the White House for counsel, including Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Ronald
Reagan was also a big believer in Bible prophecy and planned foreign policy
on the belief that Armageddon was coming soon.

It has
only been in the last thirty years that many Christians have embraced
nutrition. It is not a New Age or religious idea, to eat foods free of
chemical pollutants and dangerous pesticides. Reducing our cholesterol
intake by cutting down on red meats and fats, and eat more bran, fruits,
and vegetables. Although, vegetarianism has its roots in Hinduism, due
to the belief in reincarnation, many people are avoiding meat and dairy
products to the amount of hormones, antibiotics and chemicals placed in
them.

Vegetarianism
and eating healthy can be a universal idea. The Apostle Paul talks about
the importance of taking care of the body. “Do you not know that
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with
a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Meditation
- This ancient Hindu and Buddhist practice involves emptying the conscious
mind in order to become passive and to awaken the God-consciousness within
you through the use of a mantra. By concentrating and chanting a mantra
word, your mind supposedly becomes attuned to what mystics call your higher
self or cosmic consciousness.

Today,
meditation can be practiced in a religious sense and as a non-religious
exercise, where an individual is clearing the mind of thought, which has
scientifically beneficial results, apart from religion.

Also,
there is a long tradition of sound Christian meditation, not to be confused
with Eastern forms of meditation. It is certainly proper to meditate on
the Word of God or to think in a concentrated manner about what God is
doing in your life. “I have more insight than all my teachers, for
thy testimonies are my meditation,” says the writer of Psalm 119:99.
Meditation on the Bible involves focused thinking about what God has said.
It is completely different from opening your mind to the “cosmic
consciousness.”

Visualization
- First of all, visualization to some degree is a normal function and
creative tool of the mind. Every person before beginning any project or
goal employs some kind of visualization in order to achieve it. Many athletes
use a technique of visualization when they mentally picture themselves
winning or performing a specific task successfully. Studies show that
good automobile drivers who have low accident records often visualize
or fantasize how they would get out of a particular accident situation
while they drive. When they are faced with a potential accident, they
have already rehearsed in their minds what action they are going to take
to avoid it.

A certain
degree of visualization is necessary to perform activities in life successfully.
This kind of visualization is, however, different from the shamanistic
Hindu practices that are magical in nature.

When
considering things like a mass awakening of global consciousness that
will usher in a New Global Golden Age for mankind, it is important to
understand the historical roots of ideas that are theological in nature.
Ideas have consequences. For example, many people believe in total pacifism
and the teachings of Gandhi. That is a noble aspiration, but again ideas
have consequences. Gandhi’s approach worked because he was appealing
to the British Empire. Whatever you think of the British Empire, they
had to one degree or another, a moral code. If Gandhi had tried the same
approach with Adolph Hitler, who believed in brute force, with no moral
restraints, Hitler would have slaughtered Gandhi and his followers.

There
are tremendous pressures on society, families and mankind right now. Through
technology we have the power to destroy and enslave, at scope that is
beyond the human imagination. The desire for world peace and harmony are
not bad things. But, they must be understood historically and theologically.
Millions believed Hitler was a Messiah, who would bring in a new golden
age for mankind. When Adolph Hitler spoke, his words created a mass awakening.
But, the fatal flaw in the followers of Adolph Hitler who killed over
eight million people and Lenin, who killed or imprisoned over 100 million
people, was the failure to discern the nature of evil.

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That
is why you cannot just study one religion or philosophy. I personally
believe the study of the Old Testament and New Testament is essential
for understanding the time we live in. The Bible has distinct way of revealing
the dark side of mankind, which we must understand, if we are to be free
people. When you study Bible prophecy in particular, you see specific
warnings by the ancient prophets, about a world charismatic leader who
will rise in the last days. This leader will rise to power, promising
a new golden age and world peace. However, in the end, this world leader
is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and he will bring tyranny and destruction.
I am optimistic about the long term future of mankind. But, I want to
learn from history and make sure that before I jump on board, a “Mass
Awakening,” that it is the right kind of awakening. In other words,
I want to look before I leap.

Paul
McGuire: radio talk show host, author, feature film producer and television
commentator.

Paul McGuire
is the author of 22 books, such as the best-selling, “The
Day the Dollar Died” and “Are You Ready for the Microchip?
Paul is the host of the syndicated television show, The Paul McGuire
Report. Paul McGuire hosted the nationally syndicated talk radio show,
"The Paul McGuire Show" for 10 years. Paul McGuire is a television
commentator and has been a frequent guest on the Fox News Network and
CNN.

Paul is the
producer of two science fiction films in Hollywood. The History Channel
did a 2-hour special with Paul McGuire entitled “Seven Signs of
the Apocalypse.” Paul has interviewed numerous world leaders,
Presidents and Prime Ministers. Paul lives in Los Angeles, California.

At fifteen
years old, Paul was demonstrating with radical activist Abbie Hoffman
and made an honorary member of the Black Panther Party. However, while
studying “Altered States of Consciousness” at the University
of Missouri, Paul had a miraculous experience hitchhiking in a remote
area similar to the movie “Field of Dreams.” Paul re-thought
his socialist and humanist world view and rejected it as completely
false. Paul has devoted his life to communicating truth to people.